A broadcast router allows each one of a plurality of outputs therefrom to be assigned the signal from any one of a plurality of inputs thereto. For example, an N×M broadcast router has N inputs and M outputs coupled together by a routing engine which allows any one of the N inputs to be applied to each one of the M outputs. Oftentimes, it is desirable to construct larger broadcast routers, for example a 4N×4M broadcast router. One solution to building larger broadcast routers was to use the smaller broadcast router as a building block of the proposed larger broadcast router. This technique, however, resulted in the exponential growth of the proposed larger broadcast routers. For example, to construct a 4N×4M broadcast router required 16 N×M broadcast routers. As a result, large broadcast routers constructed in this manner were often both expensive and unwieldy. Linearly expandable broadcast routers overcame the problems of geometric expansion. However, conventionally configured linearly expandable broadcast routers suffer from other types of deficiencies. For example, oftentimes, they are susceptible to catastrophic failures which cause plural broadcast router components to fail in response to a single break.